Upcoming WordPlay

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: YOUR WRITING 
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; 
Revising & Polishing Your Writing)

This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You'll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You'll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write, whatever your preferred genre. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you'll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process. $397/12 sessions includes class audios. You'll need a copy of Spinning Words into Gold, available for $23.54 in class.

WHERE: Covenant Rec Center, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204.

WHEN: Thursdays, 7 - 9 pm, September 5 - December, 2013
(No class on September 19, October 31, November 7, or November 28) 

Want to come? Just print out and mail in the attached form or use PayPal or credit card with this link:  

Under Construction Fall Series (12 sessions for $397 -- includes class audios and resources) 

See http://wordplaynow.com/current.htm for more offerings, including The Gift of Memoir, Spinning Words into Gold, Delicious Memories, and Every Picture Holds a Story. 

WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt

This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "friend." 

I can't think of a better writing tool for the word "friend" than the "Hello It's Me," one of the thirteen tools in my writing guide Spinning Words into Gold. (You can check it out, and even order it, on my still-a-work-in-progress website:
http://www.wordplaynow.com/wordpresstest/books-3/spinning-words-into-gold/. And while you're at it, feel free to send me feedback on the website!)   

The "Hello It's Me" is very simple: just pick someone to write to, real or imaginary, known or unknown, from any time or place, and write directly to that someone about any subject(s) you choose, using the pronouns "you", "your", and "yours".  This time, in honor of our word of the week, pick a close friend and write to him or her. A letter is a perfect form for this, and so is a letter poem. Or, for that matter, a song, like Andrew Gold's "Thank you for being a friend." And why not mail this to your friend after you've finished? 

In addition to letting your friend know how much s/he means to you, who knows what could grow from this writing? After attending a talk by acclaimed novelist Isabel Allende, another friend of mine, Vivé Griffith, wrote me to say, "I was struck by how at least two of [Allende's] novels began as letters: House of the Spirits as a letter to her grandfather; Paula as a letter to her daughter Paula, who was in a coma...."

The Hello-It's-Me technique of writing directly to a particular person -- a you -- is astounding in its power to draw readers in. Writing to a you has power for the writer as well. Somehow, when what we write is aimed right for a particular person's eyes (and heart), we write with more passion, more authority. 

Would you enjoy playing with this kind of writing in a warm, encouraging community of writers, as well as getting feedback on your own work, with motivation, inspiration, and knowledge of craft thrown in? Then "Under Construction," which begins Thursday, September 5, is for you. You can find out more about Under Construction and other classes here.